


Baby, I Was Born To Survive

by iron_america



Series: Transvengers Prompts [10]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: 1930s, Bucky Barnes Is a Good Bro, Gen, Steve is FTM, Trans Male Character, they meet in a candy store
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-26
Updated: 2015-08-26
Packaged: 2018-04-17 09:36:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4661745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iron_america/pseuds/iron_america
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Based on transvengers prompt #10: Finding acceptance for the first time</p>
            </blockquote>





	Baby, I Was Born To Survive

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from Born This Way by Lady Gaga.

Stella Rogers isn’t a girl. No matter what anyone else says, he’s a boy. His mother had told him he was just confused and kicked him out. He has had to live on the streets since 1934—he has no other family. His grandparents are back in Ireland and his father is dead.

He gets really hungry one day and walks into a candy store. He finds the cheapest candy there—a pack of Wrigley’s gum.

Turns out walking in there was what changed his life.

A boy with short brown hair, wearing a red polo shirt and jeans, walks in next.

 _Wow. He looks_ emaciated _._

“Hi,” the boy says.

“You talking to me?” Steve asks, turning around from the shelf that the gum was on.

 _God. He looks more underfed than me and his clothes_ really _stink, not that I should be talking_.

“Yeah,” the boy replies. “’Course I’m talking to you. Wanna go out for a bite to eat?”

“That’s real sweet, but I don’t know your name,” Steve says. He cocks his head to the side, as if trying to remember the face.

“Oh. Sorry. Where are my manners today?” the boy asks. “I’m Bucky.”

“Steve,” Steve smiles, putting his right hand out for the boy—Bucky—to shake. “And sure. I’m _starving_ , you know that?”

“If you’re starving, why are you here?” Bucky asks. “Why aren’t you home?”

“My family kicked me out,” Steve says.

_The emaciated look, the clothes that stink...it makes sense now._

“And you got nowhere else to stay. That’s why you’re on the streets.” When Steve looks away, embarrassed, Bucky realizes he was right. “I know that this is a very personal question, and you don’t have to answer it if you don’t want to, but why’d your folks kick you out?”

Steve sighs. “I’m not ready to talk about that yet.”

* * *

Two years later, Steve is ready to talk about it.

“Buck, you remember that question you asked me when we first met? Why my parents kicked me out?"

"Yeah. Why'd they kick you out?" Bucky asks.

"Because I was born a girl," Steve says bravely. He closes his eyes, waiting for...something. When he opens his eyes, he seems genuinely surprised that Bucky is still there. "Thought you were gonna leave me."

"No chance in hell, punk," Bucky says.

"Jerk," Steve retorts, embracing Bucky in a hug. He holds Bucky tight and doesn't let go for ten minutes.


End file.
